Sogin accelerates decommissioning work

20 September 2007

[Bloomberg, Thomson Financial, 19 September] Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin), the Italian state-owned company responsible for dismantling the country's nuclear power plants, aims to accelerate the decommissioning work. During a presentation of Sogin's business plan for 2007-2011, the company's CEO, Massimo Romano, said that Eur4.3 billion ($6 billion) had been earmarked over a period of about 20 years for decommissioning. However, he said, "about 6% of the decommissioning work had been done since we started in 2000 and that's not good enough. Our aim is to accelerate the work and to have 30% done by the end of 2011." Romano said that the cost of decommissioning the plants could rise because of delays, adding that "a new forecast will be ready in the first quarter of next year." In addition, Romano said that Sogin was interested in forming alliances to strengthen its position in the international decommissioning market. According to Romano, the nuclear decommissioning market is worth some Eur300 billion ($420 billion) over the next 30 years. He said that Sogin aims to increase its sales from Eur14 million ($20 million) in 2007 to some Eur60 million ($84 million) by 2011. Sogin recently signed an agreement with Energy Solutions of the USA to develop a partnership in the decommissioning sector.